US, Iran’s main enemy: Supreme Leader

Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a Tuesday meeting with Iranian students in the capital, Tehran.

According to the Iranian calendar, Wednesday, Aban 13, marks the day when Iranian students took over the US embassy in Tehran, dubbed the “den of espionage,” back in 1979. It has been named the National Day of Fighting Global Arrogance.

In his Tuesday remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the 1953 coup d’état against former Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, and noted the then-premier made a mistake by putting his trust in the US after the Iranian oil industry was nationalized.

The Leader said the US has in recent years been involved in having certain individuals conceal its hostile intentions against Iran; the objective is to hide the real intention of the enemy from Iran so foes can harm the country, Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Some people do that with evil motives, some others out of folly, the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei urged Iranian students to learn lessons from the US embassy takeover, noting that those students who seized the embassy found out that it was a “den of espionage.”

“This shows that the Americans, at the height of the [revolutionary] movement and the victory of the Revolution, were conspiring against the Islamic Republic; that is what America is,” the Leader said.

The Leader pointed to the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries and said it was the strength of the Iranian nation that forced the countries that claim a world power status to join each other and rise up to the Iranian nation and employ the hostile measures that they did in the hope that the Iranian nation would no more be able to stand on its feet. “That is the power of the Iranian nation,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Taking insignificant internal issues as pretexts, some people forget who the enemy is, the Leader said, adding that, “Of course, the society is free, and criticism leads to progress; however, one shouldn’t mistake the main enemy with secondary enemies and with friends with whom one has disagreements.”

“The main enemy is he who seeks to destroy the achievement of the Iranian nation,” the Leader of the Islamic Revolution said.

“In the negotiations, claiming that they opposed war, Americans even shed tears in front of cameras. This is the very person who doesn’t bother when Zionists cut to pieces hundreds of children in Gaza. Is crying in front of the camera a sincere act?” the Leader said.

‘Death to US policies’

“The slogan ‘death to America’ is backed by reason and wisdom; and it goes without saying that the slogan does not mean death to the American nation; this slogan means death to the US’s policies, death to arrogance,” the Leader noted.

“Our universities were one day a bridge to the West; today, they are ladders to reach high goals; certain people want to destroy this ladder and replace it with that bridge to the West,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, urging alertness by the youth in the face of such attempts.